Melvin Lee Davis
| Melvin Lee Davis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Orange County, California, United States |
| Genres | R&B, Jazz, funk, rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, music director |
| Instruments | Electric bass, keyboard, piano |
| Associated acts | Chaka Khan, The Pointer Sisters, Patti Austin, Gladys Knight & The Pips |
| Website | melvinleedavis.com |
Melvin Lee Davis is an American bass player, vocalist, keyboard player, producer, TV composer and engineer based in Orange County, California. He is the music director for Grammy-award winning artist Chaka Khan, and has toured with and played as a session musician with The Pointer Sisters, Lee Ritenour, Bryan Ferry, Patti Austin and Gladys Knight & The Pips and others. In addition, he co-wrote the Soul Train theme song, Soul Train's A-Comin. His records, Tomorrow’s Yesterday and Nature’s Serenade were released through The Orchard; LTV: Love, Truth & Victory was released through P-Vine Records.
Born and raised in Orange County, Melvin Lee Davis played the violin at age 4 and the saxophone at age 6; he took up the guitar while he was in high school. He was discovered by a saxophone player in Buddy Miles’ jazz band who was dating his sister while Davis was playing at a club. Miles flew Davis to New York City to audition and hired him on the spot.
Davis played in New York City clubs and met Soul Train producer Don Cornelius through a mutual friend, Ron Kersey. According to Davis, Davis made many of his contacts in R&B through Cornelius. "…if you were a black musician in the business of making R&B and soul music and wanted to get on television, you had to go through Don Cornelius," he said.
His association with Cornelius lead him to co-writing the Soul Train theme,Soul Train's A-Comin'. Davis has worked for Grammy award winning singer Chaka Khan as a session and touring bassist in addition to music director. He’s also worked with jazz artists including Lee Ritenour and Patti Austin, as well as R&B notables Gladys Knight & The Pips and The Pointer Sisters as well as former Roxy Music frontman and glam rock/new wave musician Bryan Ferry.
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